desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (1Sam 4:8)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.

complete verse (1 Samuel 4:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 4:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Oh no! We are as good as dead. Who is now able to rescue us from this God of power who sent painful miseries/troubles to the Egyptians.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Now nothing good will happen to us. Who will deliver us from all these great gods? These are the gods who brought destruction in the wilderness by inflicting various kinds of plagues upon the Egyptians.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “We (incl.) are- very -pitiful/[need-of-mercy]! Who can-save/deliver us (incl.) from their mighty gods? They (were) the gods which killed the Egiptohanon in the desolate-place through a different kinds of afflictions/evils/disasters.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Who can/Can anyone save us from their powerful gods ? They are the gods who struck the people of Egypt with many plagues before the Israelis left Egypt and traveled through the desert.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 4:8

Woe to us! is a repetition of the same lament found in the previous verse and should probably be translated in the same way unless it is stylistically unacceptable to do so.

The power is literally “the hand.” The Hebrew word for “hand” is frequently used metaphorically in 1 and 2 Samuel and throughout the Old Testament to mean “power” or “control” (it occurs, for example, in 7.3, 8, 13, 14; 9.16; 10.18; 12.9; 14.37; 17.37; 2 Kgs 13.5).

These are the gods … in the wilderness: the reference is to the account in Exo 7–12. The plagues actually struck the Egyptians in Egypt before the Israelites began their wilderness journey. For this reason some change the Hebrew noun in the wilderness to read “and with pestilence.” Compare New American Bible: “that struck the Egyptians with various plagues and with pestilence.” It is recommended that translators follow the Masoretic Text. The word wilderness may present significant problems to translators who live in parts of the world where there simply are no regions that are dry and sparsely vegetated. But the most important characteristic about wilderness areas is their remoteness and the fact that people do not normally live there. It is a region that is uninhabited and virtually uninhabitable. Most translators will have already dealt with this problem in translating the New Testament and may refer to solutions found there.

Gods: the people of the nations around Israel worshiped numerous gods. Perhaps the Philistines thought that the Israelites also had more than one god. However, it is possible, and perhaps better, to render the nouns, adjectives, and verb as singular here (see the comments on verse 7). Revised English Bible says “Who can deliver us from the power of this mighty god?” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh also renders these words as singular but capitalizes “God” as referring to the God of Israel: “Who will save us from the power of this mighty God? He is the same God who struck the Egyptians….”

Plague: the Hebrew term so translated here is elsewhere rendered “slaughter” (verse 10 below as well as 6.19, and Josh 10.10). But the term is used in a general sense here of “disasters” (New Century Version). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible speaks of “all sorts of blows,” and Contemporary English Version refers to “all those horrible things” that happened to the Egyptians.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .